


Long Gone

by Kahara_the_Ghostly_Galoomp



Series: Long Gone [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background pairing - Ahsoka Tano/Kajin Savaros, Background pairing - Khaleen Hentz/Quinlan Vos, Character Interaction, Dagobah flora and fauna, Drama, Last chapters are the only ones to discuss romance other than past Padmé/Anakin, Mentions of Canonical Character Death, Odd ideas about how the Star Wars afterlife works, POV Third Person Limited, Ponderings about Dagobah and the Force, Rootleaf stew, Spoiler: Possibly canon if you squint until the epilogue chapters, Supernatural Elements, Tags Contain Spoilers, This is mostly about Yoda talking to ghosts in the swamp, Yodaspeak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4004818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahara_the_Ghostly_Galoomp/pseuds/Kahara_the_Ghostly_Galoomp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yoda is used to receiving ghostly visitors, but this one is a little out of the ordinary. A difficult parent-teacher conference with the luminous brings challenges to the Jedi Master’s routine life.</p><p>Re-posted here from TFN forums (my handle there is Kahara.) Note: TAGS CONTAIN SPOILERS. So if you haven't read this before, be aware of that!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cadence

This was first posted on the TFN Fanfic forums beginning in June of 2014. Note: I use the name Kahara on that site instead of the combined one here on AO3, but it's the same person. :) My thanks for beta reading and general encouragement go to Nyota's Heart from the same forums.

It feels strange to say this on a different site, but this story did win Best Canon Interpretation (for Yoda's character) and Best Series (along with it's sequel thread) in the 2015 Awards for TFN Fanfic. There, I made myself do advertising. ;) Even though I think this will mainly be a backup copy.

Since I'm new to AO3, please let me know if there's anything that needs fixing with the tags, etc.; I did my best but am still blundering my way around here. :) 

 

**Chapter One: Cadence**

Dark it is now. The sun has fallen below the tree line hours ago and the moon has yet to rise. Yoda is practicing the last of Faalo’s cadences. There is some small reassurance in the Jedi practice routine that is older than himself.

Unbound by gravity or the need for his frail physical body to wield it, the lightsaber swoops through the air in ever-changing patterns. Arcs, zigzags, and parabolas of light shift and spin in midair. This emerald aura is all that can be seen of the blade as he directs it to tamp out the candle flames that exist only within his mental construct for the exercise. There is room for improvisation; the complexity of the movements is limited to his imagination alone. Yet it is a closed system: he, the numbers, and the blade moved by his mind. The touch of life’s natural disorder, the hand of the living Force, is absent here and he cannot seem to find it.

“The heart is the crystal of the Jedi.” Tonight his heart is cracked at the center. There will be no restorative sleep. It is the anniversary of the Empire’s rise. Too close to the surface his memories of the lost younglings are. In the light of day, he will go on to where the Force leads him. The son and daughter of Skywalker are the future of the Jedi. But for this night, forget the other children he cannot. Gone are the young ones he taught to meditate, to perform their first katas, to sense the Force in the movements of the planets and the growth of every living thing in the Temple gardens. That family cannot be restored. Order 66. Flame Night. Such tidy euphemisms for the destruction of the Order’s next generation.

The dance of the cadences continues and he huffs a short, surprised laugh when he recognizes the pattern of Berltagh’s eighth concerto. Sneaky the subconscious mind can be. The piece has never been one of his favorites – dissonant, plaintive, lacking in the sense of peaceful majesty that marked Berltagh’s usual work. While most of the Vultan composer’s music was inspired by the wonders of the stars, the eighth concerto is an elegy to her destroyed homeworld. Yoda is a Jedi Master, but since beginning his exile he has learned that he must grieve sometimes just as he must eat, drink, and sleep. Must survive for what will be needed. He releases the sorrow to the Force, finds comfort in its serenity.

“Master Yoda.”

The Jedi Master looks up. Calling the lightsaber back to his side, he studies his new guest curiously. He is not exactly startled by the intrusion. Since Qui-Gon’s first ghostly appearance years ago, Yoda has become resigned to visitations. A comfort sometimes, to meet with old friends.

But this visitor! Unexpected she is. Glows with a bluish moonstone light like any other such apparition. Her, though? Never a Jedi was she. Had not the potential, even. Naboo was a wealthy world, even before being admitted to the Republic. Any child of Force-sensitive midi-chlorian levels would have been recorded. His ears sweep out to the sides in confusion.

This is… not impossible. If impossible, then it would not be happening. A byproduct of the Cave nearby it is not; the Dark Side’s influence reaches some small distance beyond the tunnel, but not this far. Yoda recognizes its phantoms easily and this is not one of them.

He refuses to blame the sudden manifestation of Padmé Amidala Naberrie Skywalker’s spirit on cyanoberry contamination in his porridge. In that case, his problem it would not be for long.

 

 **Notes** :

Faalo's cadences (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Faalo's_cadences>)

Crystal code (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Code#Crystal_Code>) A really interesting version of the Jedi code that I suspect may pre-date the Jedi/Sith split in-universe. It makes absolutely no mention of the dark side whatsoever, which leads me to think that it may be very old indeed.

Cyanoberries (<http://starwars.wikia.com/Cwiki/Cyanoberry>)


	2. Phantom

Yoda regards her with a neutral face, neither hostile nor quite welcoming.  “Senator Amidala, a long time it has been,” he says, taking the formal option rather than choose between her public surname and her husband’s name.  Appropriate it seems, since she has chosen to appear in her formal Senatorial garb.  Not the Queen, not the Padmé who went running after a Sith apprentice in vain hope, certainly not the exhausted woman who had drifted out of life in spite of all their efforts.  Come to negotiate she has, he thinks.  Why and what for, these are uncertainties.   
  
She inclines her head and smiles; the gift she has always had, he recalls, of assuring any being that she is not only determined to deal fairly with them but actually cares for their success.  Spent much of her time in the Senate making peace among those who were afraid to trust their peoples’ well-being to the Republic.  Lines of stress he can see around her eyes.  Looks as she often did late in the war, burdened by the weight of the galaxy’s troubles.   
  
Some difference he finds, though.  The sorrow that shades her presence does not smother the unyielding look in her eyes.  Amidala did not lack courage before her death, but now he senses that something in her spirit has been tempered into stronger steel.  Grown older in mind he thinks she has.  Yoda knows little about what passes after death for a Jedi, and nothing of what happens to other sentients.  Completely devoid of the Force no living thing is, so surprise him that others might continue in some way it does not.  But to be able to appear as only few Jedi ever manage, and they only by studying the writings of the Whills?  Hmm.   
  
He sits down and gestures for Amidala to do the same.  Somewhat rusty his memory of this routine is.  Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both prefer to communicate by voice most of the time, since images take more energy.  However, he recalls that most humanoid sentients find it easier to speak to him on a more even height level.  Closer to the normal distance of speaking and more calming.  Yoda learned long ago that the difference between his stature and Force presence leaves many beings unsettled.  Minimizing the distance tends to reduce the problem.  Paradoxical it seems to him, but strange Humans and their cousins are in many ways.   
  
“It has been many years, yes,” Amidala agrees.  Sighs under her breath, beneath the level of human hearing but not that of Yoda’s species.  “There has been so much that I -- feel my words are not up to the task.  The universal nightmare of all Senators,” she says ruefully.  “You already know, I think, what I would say if mere apologies on another’s behalf were of any proportion to what happened before I died.”   
  
No hesitation in mentioning her state.  Yet her eyes dart to her hands and she looks perplexed, as though she had not expected the faint radiance and the outlines of the physical world that show through her flesh as though it were a hologram.  “What a shlethip mess.”  She blinks in surprise at her own words.   
  
“Heh.  New you are to this, hmm?”  Theories he is beginning to have, but he decides not to mention them yet.  Many strange phenomena there are in the galaxy.  If that includes certain beings engaging in a bit of meddling – hmmph.  Allows what it pleases, the will of the Force does.  His opinion it asks not.  Never has.   
  
“Difficult it is to learn filtering one’s speech from the places beyond the material world.  Things I have heard from my former pupils.  Much honesty expressed without the grace of our Negotiator from Obi-Wan.  Old transgressions – knew I always did that Qui-Gon stole those cookies when he was young.”   
  
“It does seem that my thoughts go more directly to words now.”  A sliver of a smile from the Senator, gone in the blink of an eye as she turns serious.  “Unfortunately, I am not just here to express my regrets.”  She folds her hands and looks at him with implacable solemnity.  A twinge of apprehension Yoda feels.  Difficult this is going to turn, and quickly.   
  



	3. Senator

“Master Yoda, I know that you and Obi-Wan plan to begin training Luke in the ways of the Jedi. Alone.” Amidala does not look pleased with this knowledge.    
  
“Think you that Leia we should begin teaching also?” he asks, his tone becoming brisk. Very few last chances they have, and wish to put all of their marsh pods in one hammock she does?    
  
She frowns thoughtfully. “That would be a start, yes.” Acknowledging his scowl with an even, diplomatic look, she says, “You and Kenobi are among the best Jedi I have ever known. Understand that my concerns are not due to a lack of faith in your teaching skills. Even if there were still an entire Order, there is no one I would trust more than the two of you.” Not mere flattery those words are – the honesty of them resonates in her Force signature. Yoda discovers that his first reaction is a sense of remorse. Subtle, but it rests in the pit of his stomach like a snail’s shell. “In fact, I believe that you could also train Leia and a few others at the same time. I think you should do that.”   
  
“What? No!” The risks – surely she cannot mean this. “Senator Amidala, endanger our plans this way we cannot. What if Vader were to sense the ripples in the Force from more than one Jedi in training? A hazard it is even to teach Skywalker. Every additional student compounds the potential for disaster, from within or without. Wish you that more students should fall if the worst comes to pass?   
  
Amidala seems unmoved by his agitation. “Some of the risks increase somewhat, yes. However, this plan to leave the defeat of the Sith and revival of the Jedi in Luke’s hands is much more dangerous than what I have proposed. Master Yoda, I still remember something you said years ago. In defense of the Republic’s value, you said that the power of many strands woven together is greater than that of any one alone. You were right. That’s what the Jedi will need.”    
  
He cannot afford to consider this. Always of good intentions he believes Amidala was, but the results of her choices weigh heavily on the galaxy. It still takes more work than Yoda expected to quash the side that wants to trust in her words.    
  
Seeing his lowered ears, the woman holds her hands out imploringly – a gesture he recognizes from her dealings with the Senate. “This is going to be difficult,” Amidala says, and he snorts in laughter at hearing his own predictions come to pass “— but there is something that you are missing, Master Yoda. You can see possible futures.” He nods. “The past and the present as well. You generally see them either as yourself or from a removed point of view, as I understand it?”   
  
“Where go you with this?”   
  
“The past.” She briefly pauses . Raises her head and looks him straight in the eye. “Everything you know is either through what you saw in person or through what the Force tells you – and the Force most easily shows you what is already connected to you. You saw parts of Anakin’s fall. But you didn’t see the years leading up to it as I did.”   
  
“Pointless it is to revisit these things, Senator. Leave them out of the conversation I have tried to for your sake.”   
  
“No. This is the only way that I can think of to explain why I think you’re heading in the wrong direction by training only Luke. I know that Obi-Wan did everything possible to help Anakin adapt to the Jedi ways. He was a dear friend to both of us and I’ve never met anyone with such a bright heart. If he’d been tasked only with training Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi, he would have succeeded. Instead, he was left with the pressure of raising the Chosen One.”    
  
Yoda leans his forehead against his palms for a moment. Patience this will require. It is a good thing for him that he has had so much practice. Treading on unstable ground this conversation is. Too many disasters that would be easy to throw reprimands over. Productive that would not be, however. More than to be correct, he wants to know what has brought this improbable spirit to his doorstep.   
  
“Knew that Skywalker’s life was not an easy one. Work to make it harder I did not, no matter what he believed. You were not the only one to see his value, Amidala. Why think you that way?”   
  
The ghost looks pained. “Please, don’t think that I’ve come here to blame you or the rest of your people for Vader. That would be a terrible lie. None of you planned that disaster. However, the way that the Order responded to Anakin was key in leaving him open to the manipulations that drove him to the dark side. It was not because all the Jedi deliberately rejected him the way he thought at the end. But there were lost opportunities along the way.    
  
“When I met Anakin Skywalker at nine years of age, he was an outgoing child who was always making new friends. I won’t deny that he had some emotional problems. What child wouldn’t have issues after leaving his mother in slavery and going off to an uncertain future among strangers? Still, the harshness that life hadn’t stamped out his need to bond with others and share in their causes.    
  
“Ten years later there was such a difference in him, and it wasn’t only from his age. At first, I only noticed that he was – well, taller, and definitely no longer a child. More confident in his Jedi abilities, certainly. And he had that way of looking at me and smiling, as if I’d just lit the stars in the sky for him. But it didn’t take long to see there was an isolation about Anakin that hadn’t been there before. He seemed to create a transparisteel barrier between himself and the rest of the galaxy.  All but for me , it sometimes seemed.    
  
“Even with his fairly clear feelings, there was something about him that was hidden and difficult to  understand until Tatooine. When I had heard the worst of his actions, then we made sense to each other. I’m not always terribly sure why that was – there were many reasons why I loved Anakin. Reasons why I still do.” No hesitation in her voice, but such sorrow. “Some things about the love we shared are a mystery to me, though. Maybe what we both wanted most was one good thing that we could save.”   
  
Instead, so much was destroyed. Yoda is used to the fact that Human motivations will never make perfect sense. Sometimes, like now, it makes him tired – or perhaps not. Maybe he still dislikes admitting to himself that he actually feels lost.   
  
“The massacre of the Tusken tribe. Seen this in meditations of late.” Why did she not tell them when time they still had? Little use the knowledge is now, decades after the fact. If show him such things the Force must, he wishes it would allow him to smack the guilty parties with his gimer stick in a timely manner. Much could have been avoided.    
  
She nods. “It was a horrific thing, and I suppose it must seem like it was a sign of what was to come. Well, it was. Anakin was not balanced in the way he loved people, and as for losing them – he couldn’t do it, just didn’t deal well with it at all.”   
  
“Not a part of the dark side is love itself,” he says, frowning. “The rules of the Order existed for a reason, but never did the Jedi consider affection to be an evil. Necessary it is for much of the galaxy to continue. Forbidden the Jedi were to marry for reasons of danger – the fear, jealousy, lack of perspective that are tied to such attachments. Such passions unbalance the spirit, make it harder to see clearly.”   
  
Amidala looks troubled. “A policy created by fear to prevent your people from being corrupted by fear. It always seemed circular to me.”    
  
“Led by fear of losing his loved ones was Vader. That fear brought him to the Sith.”   
  
“Yes. What doesn’t sound right to me is that it was solely a matter of having too much attachment. I recall more that he had very few people who were close. I suspect that was one of the reasons he clung to those few with such desperation.”   
  
Yoda hums a  noncommittal sound. “Similar thoughts Obi-Wan has discussed with me, Amidala. But the children have had families to raise them. Part of our reasoning in not keeping them on Dagobah and training them from childhood. Intend to re-create the same rules of non-attachment for a recovering Jedi Order neither Kenobi nor I did.”    
  
He answers the ghost’s raised eyebrows with a keen look. Expect him to be the same after two decades she should not. “Made for the preservation of a stable Republic the old rules were. All is not won simply by felling the Empire. That is where the labor starts. A galaxy without an Emperor, after all these years, anything but stable will be. Without some adaptations, very small are our chances of thriving.” 

 

**Notes** :

The “hammock” that Yoda mentions is the word used for a stand of trees on slightly raised ground that forms an island-like place in the middle of a wetland area. It can also be spelled “hummock”, which may be the more common spelling outside the United States.  
  
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammock_(ecology)> )   
  
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummock#Swamp_Hummocks>) 


	4. Queen

“That sounds very practical of you,” Amidala says. Eight hundred and ninety-nine years Yoda has not reached without being able to hear the “but” coming from kilometers away. The Senator smiles sadly, her thoughts obviously turning inward. “Master Yoda, you remember Ahsoka.”   
  
An old pain that is. He sags under the weight of it.   
  
“She made her own decisions, always. It was one of her most reliable qualities,” Amidala notes gently, and he wonders if she has picked up more than the ability to appear – or if he is simply growing predictable in his old age. Force forbid.   
  
Amidala’s expression shifts to a wry half-smile. “Do you know how many heart attacks that girl saved me from? Let’s just say ‘uncounted’ and leave it at that. More than she caused, which was a considerable number. But I think being responsible for her training made Anakin more stable in a matter of months than all those years of going through training himself.”   
  
“Change the outlook of a student on their apprenticeship becoming a Master often does.”   
  
“And it did,” she agrees. “He patched up his ties to his former teacher and formed a stronger camaraderie with the clones under his command. He even seemed to be talking more to the other Jedi. Odd how that was when I first noticed that socializing with other Jedi was something he never did unless some task demanded it. And how peculiar that was, compared to most other members of the Order that I had met in my career.”   
  
Some confusion. He breathes it out, focuses his thoughts.   
  
“Notice this I must say I did not. Skywalker shared many missions with other Knights and Padawans. Not always a shining example of cooperation, but still he worked with others.”   
  
“Anakin worked with many beings up to a certain point,” she replies. “However, I came to see that few of those were true partnerships. Often he was protecting others, playing the part of the champion who they looked to as their hope. Sometimes he was their rival, competing against those who saw him as a threat to their own status. Force knows, that man could never step away from a contest. The arguments we had before he learned that debating was in my nature were very trying. There were few peers who related to him on an equal level. Fewer still were close enough to help him cope with the war. After Ahsoka left, I noticed he drew away from the Jedi again.” The Senator frowns as she looks out into the swamplands, tracking the sound of a bogwing’s shriek. “I can’t help but feel that the Dark Side would have been less seductive if he hadn’t retreated from those few tentative friendships.”   
  
“A Jedi’s greatest support the Force must be.”   
  
Distant is her expression at those words. Her answer surprises him, even though it should not.   
  
“I don’t think Anakin was comfortable with the idea of the Force being more than a tool. He was never at peace with the idea of being in that prophecy, no matter how he tried to pretend otherwise. The Force phenomena that he encountered on Mortis were inexplicable.”   
  
“Accept much of those accounts I am afraid we cannot. Suspect that there was some level of illusion.” He shrugs. Yoda has unlearned and learned much, but there are things even now that are beyond his understanding.   
  
“Anakin told me about that place only once. It was a frightening and disjointed story, and the chain of events still makes little sense to me. He appeared to be disturbed by his experience.”   
  
“Some mysteries the Force will always hold. But how connect you this fear of Skywalker’s to a need for more Jedi students?”   
  
She pauses and he wonders how much of the unsaid in her words relates to her being a Force spirit. There are things that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are unable to discuss, and he suspects it is the same for Amidala.   
  
“Because nothing weakens a sentient being quite as much as the knowledge that they have no real home to return to between trials.   
  
“The things that Luke will have to deal with as a Jedi are not merely challenging. Many forces out there will be drawn to any ‘last Jedi’, because of what he is. Sith and others.” Her voice is controlled, but he can hear the worry.   
  
“There are bad times coming. You know it as well as I do. Hence your reluctance to have Leia trained as well. She’s meant to be your backup plan. A replacement.” Harsher pitch to her voice as she makes this accusation, and an accusation it is. The first trace of anger that Yoda has heard from Amidala this night.   
  
“More than one Jedi will be needed soon.” Her certainty glows in the Force, fills him with apprehension. Seen things through the Force he has, but always nebulous. He focused on such phantoms during the Clone Wars and failed to see what was before his eyes. Wish to make such a mistake again he does not. “Leaving either of the twins to shoulder the burden alone would make them infinitely more vulnerable. Companions to share in their training could make all the difference. For them and for those who will follow.”   
  
“Good it is for any being to have friendships. But a product of others we are not. To confront the Sith, a Jedi must have insight and trust in the Force – not just in the reflections of his companions.” Yoda looks out into the night, seeing not the darkness but the faces of those long gone.   
  
“That insight is what I want them to develop. It’s why I’m urging you to reconsider.”   
  
He clears his throat irritably and she ignores it.   
  
“A Jedi trained alone would lack a sense of connection to the galaxy. They might appreciate their bond to rodents and plants and motes of dust, maybe – but not to the people they were training to protect. That relationship is much more complicated and difficult to build.” Sadness he can hear in her tone, and he knows without sensing that she is thinking of Vader. “It would be far too easy for them to feel that being true to the Jedi meant pushing away from the rest of the galaxy. Making a more extreme version of the isolationism of the old Order only leads to more trouble down the road.”   
  
“Hmm,” he huffs and quirks one eyebrow, but finds there is little conviction in it.   
  
“Together, the twins would be able to grow from the experience of sharing their trials with others – their Jedi family, I remember your people once called them.”   
  
He sighs. “I too wish that we could build a Jedi Order stronger in numbers before facing the Empire. But do this we cannot. Remote this place may be, but a group in training will inevitably attract the Emperor’s attention. Too many who escaped the slaughter of the Temple have been cut down. Visions over the years, again and again of the Jedi falling under Vader’s blade. Overwhelmed by superior numbers the Sith cannot be. Others have tried and failed. Many at first. Now one by one they go. ”   
  
Amidala shakes her head. “What I’m suggesting is not an insurgency. There is already one in progress and the Rebels are running it quite well without much in the way of Jedi assistance. The thing that you can do, and I believe it would be effective, is train new Jedi and let them act in secret as much as possible. They can sabotage the Empire’s war machines, turn its factions against each other, and seek out the traps that the old man has left waiting for any who succeed him. They can build for what will come later.”   
  
“No more. Change my mind you cannot.” Yoda thumps his cane on the ground in emphasis and turns away. Sense the politician is starting to make, and unacceptably dangerous that is. Amidala has a knack for gaining the cooperation of others. Seen how this can lead them on an idealistic crusade he has, and he wants no part of it. Responsibility to the future of the galaxy must be his guide. Not a dead woman’s castles in the fog.   
  
He looks back over his shoulder to argue some more. Convince her of the impracticality of this scheme he must.   
  
Unfortunately, the Senator has disappeared. Yoda scowls at thin air.   
  
“Recognize this behavior I do. Very irritating habits someone has taught her!”   
  
He hobbles off towards his hut, mumbling about how inconsiderate Force ghosts can be. Always they resort to fading out when they wish to be rid of one’s conversation.   
  


 

**Notes** :

Bogwing ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bogwing](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bogwing))   
  
The Ones of Mortis ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ones](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ones)) Anakin may have actually told Padmé more or less about them in canon; a brief check revealed no references one way or the other.   
  
The early Jedi attacks on the Empire that Yoda mentions include events like this one ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Conclave_on_Kessel](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Conclave_on_Kessel)) where Jedi who initially escaped the Purge tried to gather their forces.   
  
As a general note on the events of the Clone Wars cartoon, I’ve only watched a handful of episodes and the rest comes from reading summaries. The interpretation of events may be a bit off from the series in places.


	5. Stew

Earlier than he expected, Yoda is drawn out of his slumber by a plunking sound. Also by the sharp pain in his head that comes with it. Lost an acorn some creature has. Leaf-tail again! He springs after the fuzzy little rodent, which scrambles out through a crack in the window and flees into the swamp.    
  
Sadly, in its hurry the miscreant left a trail of discarded acorns and berries on the floor. Too nimble on his feet the Jedi Master is to fall down, but much uncomfortable hopping about occurs until he finds and tosses all the debris. Greatly amused he is sure his two regular visitors would be, though they have not spoken to him in several days. Disappeared at a rather close time to someone else’s arrival, he notes.   
  
Peering out into Dagobah’s early morning haze, he sees the leaf-tail ponderously climbing up a nearby mangrove tree. Slowed by its large meal of berries and nuts, no doubt. It turns to face Yoda and scolds him with a shrill cry.    
  
“Heh. Yes. Brave gatherer of food you are, I am sure.” He huffs with laughter. Long ago, he decided that he could either laugh or go Sith on the larcenous tree rats. So far, chosen to laugh at them he has.   
  
Yoda allows most of the smaller creatures to come and go from his makeshift home as they please. Saves much energy otherwise wasted. Leaf-tails are on the “exiled” list, however. Belong they do in the upper branches of the great mangrove tree that contains his home, but welcome inside the walls they are not. Pesky things. Noisy. Messy. Given half the chance, they will gnaw their way into his stores and feast to balloon-sized overfill on the preserved foodstuffs. When discovered in the act, they look at him woefully as though  _ his  _ fault were the consequences of their thievery. With most creatures he can plant a gentle suggestion to leave the hut alone, but the leaf-tails are stubborn rogues.    
  
As often happens, the leaf-tail managed to chew through the casing around his food storage and eat an amount all out of proportion to its size. Need to replenish the supplies Yoda will.    
  
He goes to the kitchen and starts putting together the ingredients for rootleaf stew and a little tea. At least the rodents have little interest in rootleaf. Nor do they care for the mildly bitter taste of yarum. Made from different ingredients than those of his homeworld, the stew still holds the comfort of familiarity. The smell of crushed yarum seeds wafting from the tea calms his nerves. Yoda eats slowly this morning. A wavering of sorts in the Force he can sense ever since speaking with Amidala. Pathways are shifting and rearranging themselves in the energy field; all of his attempts at meditation branch off into many fragmented possible futures. Hazardous times draw near, if he is any judge. He doesn’t like it. Especially not at this hour of the morning. Going to be one of those days, he can tell this is.   
  
Done with cleaning dishes and repairing the hole in the storage area, Yoda steps outside to enjoy the humid air and is unsurprised to find Amidala waiting for him. Understood that she would find her way back at some point he did.    
  
“A pleasant morning to you, Senator Amidala.”   
  
“May your work under this sun feed your home and heart,” she returns. The phrase is similar to an old Alderaanian greeting, surely making it the Naboo equivalent. A strange choice it seems until she points out the leaf-tail lounging in a high crook of the mangrove tree. Incriminating purple berry stains the arboreal nuisance has on its fur. They are visible even from a distance.   
  
“Know my business before I do the entire realm of the deceased seems to. But speak while I gather we may.”   
  
The Senator walks beside him as he makes his way towards the galla tree grove. She asks a few questions about the local food staples and seems to be taking a few moments to gather her thoughts. In spite of their last conversation, the atmosphere doesn’t feel as strained as he would have expected. From an agricultural background of sorts he had forgotten the former Queen of Naboo was. Her family had moved to Theed when she was quite young, but her earliest years were spent in a mountain village. She takes careful note of the plants, fungi, and molds that he gathers and proves to have a keen eye for spotting more pockets of the same kinds.    
  
When he walks out onto a chunk of land that stretches out into the lake – really, it is mostly a collection of mud held together by mangrove trees – he thinks she will wait on the shore, but she ventures directly into the water. That spirits generally walk on the ground without falling through or floating above it he already knows. Evidently, this wraith also sinks through water, though it doesn’t slow her or drag at her gown in the way that it would if she were alive. Amidala halts a few feet away from the galla tree where he is searching for his next supper. Without any shadow or reflection on the pond’s surface, she seems as displaced from the scenery as a holoprojection.   
  
“Why do you return?” he asks.    
  
“I suppose the Jedi have very few superstitions about the dead.”    
  
As clear as the pondwater that answer was. He gives her a doubtful look and mumbles, “Hmm.”   
  


 

**Notes** :

Leaf-tail ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Leaf-tail](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Leaf-tail))   
  
Rootleaf stew ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rootleaf_stew](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rootleaf_stew))   
  
Yarum seeds ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yarum_seed](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yarum_seed))  
  
Galla seeds ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galla_seed](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galla_seed))  
  
Padmé’s birthplace on Naboo ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Unidentified_mountain_village_(Naboo)](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Unidentified_mountain_village_\(Naboo\)))


	6. Harbinger

“I return because I have chosen not to rest yet.” Amidala looks out over the pond, which is dotted with the crimson blooms of nharpira’s-eye lillies. “It’s not something that is easy to explain. All I can say is that it happened when I looked back. They’re right when they tell you that’s dangerous.”    
  
She shrugs. “But I did look, and – maybe because I was between states – I saw the bindings. They were all over the place. Little manipulations, lies, and hidden cruelties were tied to bigger ones, drawing everything they touched into the web. There was no need to even follow them to know who was at the center. That was the galaxy that I was leaving behind. It was intolerable.”    
  
More to the story there must be, but she does not tell it.    
  
“Stay you did not need to. The dead have no responsibility to worry over the living, of that much I am sure.” Yoda shakes his head sadly at the thought of a non-Jedi lingering so. What Jinn learned from the Whills is one thing; that ability draws from a core of selflessness and peace with the universe. To remain through guilt, though? Amidala is, perhaps, troublesome as a ghost. Still, she does not merit the fate of being trapped between the phases of existence.   
  
Amidala shakes her head. He knows how to interpret this particular form of the gesture, after some hundreds of years working with Humans. Source it is of the common Basic saying that things go “in one ear and out the other.”    
  
“And you have no responsibility to worry over me, Master Yoda. As I said, I’m here because I choose to be.”    
  
“Thought about your words I have, Senator. But follow them I cannot.”   
  
“So you’ve been stewing over how misguided I am,” she says with an amiable smile. Pah. Senators.    
  
“That too. Not only for that reason, however. Time stands still for you, but for me it has not. Too old am I to begin training more than one student.”   
  
Amidala nods. “I realize that.”    
  
Surprised, he blinks back at the ghost’s compassionate expression.   
  
“What is it that you hoped to accomplish, then?”    
  
“To plant the idea. It seemed likely that you would not want to take on so many students by yourself. My point was to get you thinking about the benefits of a small group. You have been living in isolation here on Dagobah for so long that the outside must seem very far away.” Amidala meets his gaze directly. “You would not have to be the only teacher. There  _ are _ others.”   
  
It takes a moment for that suggestion to sink in. He does not like it at all.    
  
“None that I can call upon, Senator. The last Jedi that I know of are myself, Jinn, and Kenobi. The ones who have escaped… they are lost. One with the Force, some of them. Others fallen into shadow or made wary and bitter by a life of hiding. Those few survivors wish only to forget who they were.”   
  
“I think you may be exaggerating the drawbacks of some potential allies.”    
  
“Refuse to bring them into this task I do. Too many are vulnerable to being influenced by the dark side, even those who have not joined the Empire. Putting them all together – no. Harmful to both them and the students.”   
  
She raises her eyebrows. “More harmful than the inevitable task of rebuilding the Jedi unaided? I don’t doubt that there are some unhealthy ex-Jedi out there, but I also believe that you have the experience to figure out which ones are the bad risks.”   
  
“ _ No _ . Senator Amidala, there is no more that I have to say to you today. Please leave.” He turns around and goes back to searching for food supplies. There is no purpose in continuing the discussion. It disturbs him.   
  
“If you are going to continue this way, I suppose there is little I can do about it. However, there are some things that you should know.” Requires some resolve not to turn around, as the edge to her tone makes him instinctively want to face the threat.   
  
“I am not prevented from appearing to untrained Force-sensitives, Master Yoda.”    
  
He whirls back towards her, gasping in disbelief.   
  
“Do this you cannot.”   
  
“Oh, I most certainly can.”    
  
“Blackmail this is.”   
  
“My  _ children _ they are.”    
  
Speech fails him. Years of careful planning could topple over in a matter of minutes. If she tells them. The end of all it could be.

 

**Notes** :

Nharpira ( [ http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nharpira ](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nharpira) )    
  
List of Jedi Purge survivors, for reference: ( [ http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Jedi_Purge_survivors ](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Jedi_Purge_survivors) ) Investigating the list may explain why Yoda has concerns! Altogether, they’re a motley rogues gallery of heroes, villains, and scoundrels.    
  
Whills ( [ http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ancient_Order_of_the_Whills ](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ancient_Order_of_the_Whills) ) 


	7. Disquiet

Amidala stares back at his glowering face with a look that he knows all too well – wear it often he does, when faced with monumental repairs for his dwelling that the swamp is always attempting to eat. No quarter to the unpleasant task at hand.   
  
“How – you know the damage it would do if they were to find out so soon!”   
  
“I never said that it was what I preferred.”   
  
Yoda squints at her warily, at a loss for how to salvage the situation. He reaches to the Force for guidance. Hmm. An inconsistency there is.    
  
“You would allow them not to know of their heritage, if they were to train together.”   
  
“Honestly, I think they would figure out they were siblings once introduced to any advanced training. The likeness of their auras is a bit hard to mistake. I doubt you need to worry that that would lead them to more details of their family history. So much has been forgotten, destroyed, or garbled over the years.”   
  
“Find it hard to believe I do that you would allow them to remain in ignorance of Vader’s relation to Anakin Skywalker. The Sith must be destroyed. Willing to let that happen you are?” He can scarcely believe that, knowing the strength of Amidala’s devotion to her husband.   
  
“Yes, actually.” Used to seeing ghosts on occasion, Yoda normally does not notice how unreflective their eyes are. He is surprised to find that he must struggle not to back away from that gaze.    
  
She gives a faint, melancholy smile to some memory out of view. “Vader is a grown Sith and can take care of himself. I do still believe there is good in him. That doesn’t mean I want the children finding out at an inopportune time. Early would be bad. Late would be… less than ideal, but not cause for my interference. They are all alive; they will have to sort it out for themselves.”   
  
“Something of an irony I perceive,” Yoda remarks. “If I cooperate, this ultimatum of yours will hardly not interfere in their lives..”   
  
“A matter of degree, Master Yoda.”   
  
“More formal you become when being a menace you are.”   
  
Eyebrow and no comment. Hmmph. His ears twitch with agitation.    
  
“Even if I wanted to contact the Purge survivors, I could not. See where they are at one moment in time, I sometimes do. Usually shortly before they die. Not useful for building an address book that is.” He scowls.   
  
Amidala appears to be deliberating something, but the Force is quiet as to her emotional state.   
  
“Maybe so, but I know how to find the ones who can help get a project of this kind started.”   
  
“Oh dear Force,” he mutters.   
  
“Well, it is everywhere.”   
  
“Who?” Sheer, morbid curiosity motivates him.    
  
“You’ll need Ahsoka,” she says, as though that were a perfectly obvious answer.   
  
“Tano would not agree. Abandoned the ways of the Jedi. Full of despair and mistrust she was the last we spoke. Improved matters for her I expect the Empire’s reign has not.”    
  
“She may surprise you, and she has connections to others who could help in training.”    
  
“Hmm. And the students? Most children of high Force-sensitivity are killed or turned in the Empire. More than Luke and Leia it may not be reasonable to expect to find.”    
  
“Well, let me think. Quinlan’s children are all Force-sensitive. He’s not eager for Imperial attention, but I can talk him into it.”   
  
“You have been talking to Quinlan Vos,” he says without a trace of question. Interesting it is, really. Each and every time he thinks this cannot get more alarming, it does.   
  
She replies with yet more words to make him doubt his cardiovascular system will last the short years that he believes he still has.    
  
“And to Scout. She hired a slicer recently, after attempts to locate her family failed. They discovered that her parents had been executed, but evidently Scout also had a much younger sister who was taken into some sort of training by the Empire.”   
  
“Seen that sister of hers in my visions. A good idea this is not! Too much anger, even though the Emperor has not trained her in the ways of the Sith. Knife fights with the other students we will be having. Strangulation with common household objects. Broken skulls.”    
  
“Scout is very determined to get her back.”   
  
Though Scout is dear to him as one of the younglings he mentored during the Clone Wars, Yoda is unsure of this idea. Knows through the Force that the former Padawan has grown up to have a fondness for high explosives and a great deal of Mandalorian cultural influence. Recognized her by the blast scarring on her armor he has for several years now. Combining this with the Imperial sister – much mass destruction he foresees.   
  
“Are you sure that a school for Jedi this is that you are planning? Because sound remarkably like a demolition crew it does.”    
  
Amidala’s smile is serene. “The skills these Jedi exiles have learned will be helpful for what the children need to achieve within the next several years.”    
  
“The fear they have developed living under the Empire will be a problem.”   
  
“Fear is always one of the problems.” She nods graciously and fades out.    
  
“Agree to any of this foolishness I do not. Vanishing does not win arguments.”   
  
Yoda gathers up the food packs and heads for home. If things are to be this aggravating, more stew he will need to make.   
  


 

**Notes** :

Quinlan Vos (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quinlan_Vos>)  
  
Scout (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tallisibeth_Enwandung-Esterhazy>)


	8. Divergence

Life in the swamp does not lend itself to tracking time carefully, but it has been a few weeks since Amidala’s last appearance. The stars of Kerest and Praesitlyn are now visible in the sky at night, as the seasonal rotation of Dagobah around its sun has brought them into view again.    
  
The holes that the leaf-tail left in the food storage areas have been patched, but now the east wall of the hut is starting to cave. Yoda is working on the problem, replacing rotted-out materials with new branches and clay. Routine this kind of thing has been for many years. Fix one thing, another breaks. For a dwelling to remain in working condition in this environment is not natural. All sentient-made things tend to surrender to the waters and disappear. Only by making compromises is he able to keep the place standing at all.    
  
Some of those compromises are in a state of disorder. The carpenter slugs that help to maintain the walls have disappeared. Thus the clay crumbles more quickly. Collapsing without support the braces of the walls are, as the dried mud falls away. Inconvenient. Missing as well are the whiptail gargouilles and the sleen which patrol inside the dwelling for pests. Small biting insects have increased in numbers as a result of their absence.    
  
Resentful of the trouble he cannot be, however. The animals fled because of the subtle turmoil of their home’s largest inhabitant. Attuned to the Jedi Master they have become over time, and his recent worry disrupts their sense of security. No sign he has seen of the ghost, yet he knows in the quick of his claws that the incident is not concluded.    
  
Finished with his work for the moment, Yoda leaves the wall repairs to dry in the late morning sun and goes out to meditate. He finds one of his favorite refuges, a small meadow shaded by the interlaced branches of mossy gnarltrees. Spotlight sloths are there feeding on the lahdia plants, but they ignore him. Their vague, fuzzy minds make little disturbance in the Force and they seem to regard him as a sort of boulder to be avoided as they shuffle around searching for lahdia blooms.    
  
Though the sloths are not a distraction, Yoda is no more successful than he has been for some time now. Years on Dagobah have taught him to pay attention to the quiet things. The Force is strong here, but when it communicates it speaks in a different tone than elsewhere. Softly, subtly, as though its voice must pass through water. Peculiar in nature is this planet, and he has a hunch that there is more to its secrets than the Cave’s delusions. Lately he finds that the state of the Force mirrors his surroundings: misty and maze-like, filled with deep currents and elusive shadows. Neither devoid of the darkness nor eclipsed by it.    
  
Opening his eyes at dusk, he sees the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn bowed in a kneeling meditative pose at his side.    
  
Yoda nods and greets the other Jedi respectfully, as he has done since beginning his apprenticeship in the knowledge of the Whills. Still, he gives Qui-Gon a skeptical look as the Human returns his pleasantries. Throw away decades of a changed and less adversarial friendship with the man he will not, but he does not appreciate being manipulated. More than suspicion he now has.   
  
“Mind explaining why Amidala suddenly has developed a habit of wandering about as a Force ghost do you?” he inquires, letting the Human know with his flat tone of voice that no bantha fodder will be accepted.   
  
The spirit’s expression is concerned but not guilty.   
  
“There are more powers in the universe than the use of the Force through living midi-chlorians – as you have seen. Some beings have a certain amount of aptitude for making themselves known to the living. It is possible, though not easy, for Jedi spirits to lend these people a bit of Force energy to use for the purposes of communicating more directly.” Qui-Gon shrugs. His aura exudes serious deliberation, though Yoda also sees the telltale crinkles at the corners of his eyes that hint at some amusement. “Though you may not be able to hear her under most circumstances, _we_ most certainly can.”   
  
“Loud and clear,” the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi interjects.   
  
“Envision that Amidala would persist in speaking her mind to you I can,” Yoda says, “but sound like people who have been harried into a reluctant choice you do not.”    
  
“Not that much, no,” he hears Obi-Wan reply.   
  
“Padmé Amidala was not and is not a Jedi,” Qui-Gon adds. “That limits her expertise in matters of the Force, but it also grants her a unique view. It looks more and more like that will be needed here. You’ve noticed that things are a bit unsettled in the galaxy.”    
  
“Unravel years of planning she will, if you do not find a way to stop her.”   
  
Qui-Gon chuckles and shakes his head. “It does not work that way, Master Yoda. What she does with the ability to communicate is up to her now. Neither Obi-Wan nor I can do anything about it.”   
  
“Mmm hmm. Only in some degree do I believe that.” Though Force ghosts seem to be virtually incapable of outright lying, he has seen that with practice they often become adept at editing the truth.   
  
“You have not rushed off to find Luke Skywalker and intervene with whatever Amidala might say,” Qui-Gon observes.   
  
“No. That I have not.” He wraps his cloak tighter against the chill of the evening, then folds his hands together and rests his chin on them. “Swift action would not have been useful, I felt. Waiting… searching for an answer I have been.”   
  
“Have you found one?”   
  
He looks up at the ghost with a dubious widening of his eyes and gestures to the contrary. “Same answer I have been given since the Death Star’s demise, only more so now.” Yoda exhales wearily. “Mine is the decision.”   
  
The tall ghost nods. “There are many crossroads. Shatterpoints, the key places where decisions will be made, are not evenly scattered across time. They congregate. We spirits in the Force have felt them forming and disappearing since the Rebellion against the Empire began. I believe that you hold one such shatterpoint of great significance in your hands.”

 

**Notes** :

Kerest (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kerest>) and Praesitlyn (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Praesitlyn>) are in the Sluis sector along with Dagobah, so they might be close enough to be seen in the sky at night.   


Whiptail gargouilles were inspired by the arachnids called whip scorpions or vinegaroons (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelyphonida> – although nasty looking, none of the species are venomous and a few are kept as pets.) The gargouille (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargouille>) was a kind of dragon in French folklore.   


Sleen (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sleen>)    


Gnarltree (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gnarltree>)    


Spotlight sloth (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Spotlight_sloth>)    


Lahdia plant (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lahdia_plant>)


	9. Decision

“This should not be.” Yoda searches the other Jedi’s face for something, anything to negate this troubling news. Nowhere is it to be found.   
  
“And why not?”    
  
“The teaching of a Jedi apprentice does not run one direction; know that well you do. The Master must learn along with the Padawan. Nearly too old am I to begin that process with _one_ student. Several – not likely! No time remains for grand ventures. Not yet dead am I, but soon. Soon enough that I must be mindful of what I start.”   
  
He accepts the outstretched hand that Qui-Gon’s spirit offers by reflex, finding that the gesture somehow works in spite of the Force spirit’s weightless substance. Rarely did a Jedi exchange any but the most reserved touch. Yet this contact is familiar; even a Jedi youngling needed a hand held in comfort after a nightmare, or to be guided along the halls of the Temple.    
  
“The details need some refining, but changing our plans may not be the worst idea,” Qui-Gon says. “There is truth in what Padmé says. You would not have to take this on alone.”   
  
“Pushing for this idea you are?”   
  
“It’s more that I have accepted that there is a potential for going another way and I wanted you to at least have the chance to hear it. Whether it would be the best path or not, that I cannot tell you.”   
  
“Bring in the survivors of the Purges I would rather not.” He breathes in deeply. Ponders the question that he knows Qui-Gon will not ask. Some pains the other Jedi is aware of and will not poke at, even for a cause. “Fail them I have.” He looks away.    
  
“That’s assuming far more control over events than any of us had.” Obi-Wan appears to the side of the other Jedi spirit. “As one of those fugitives? You didn’t fail us. The things you missed during the Clone Wars were the same things all of us missed. And frankly, expecting yourself to be more perceptive than thousands of Jedi put together is a bit excessive.”    
  
His old student smiles, looking almost his actual middle-age in spite of the weathering that the desert suns left as their mark. “Vader and the Emperor’s lackeys were thorough, but they were not omnipotent – much as they would like to be. There are some survivors who chose the same as I and are still waiting in quiet for the Jedi to revive. And there are some who moved on to build new lives and families.”   
  
“Perhaps left to those new lives they ought to be, then.”   
  
“I am sure some of them would be of the same mind. Others could be convinced. The Emperor’s galaxy will have little place for them as it grows more organized. What you have some influence over is when they may bring the fight to the Empire, not whether they will need to do so.”  The grim certainty in Kenobi’s eyes echoes in his Force signature. “That said, it is a complicated matter. None of us whose time is already gone can advise you with perfect accuracy.”   
  
Qui-Gon nods towards the other man, then turns to Yoda. “Yes, and I think the Force has told you as much?”    
  
“Hmm. Two paths. One practical and not hastily created. Product of years of planning on the part of all three of us. The other, not driven by ill motives I think. But more complicated, hard to pursue, of uncertain results. Is this your understanding as well?” Yoda observes the two Jedi spirits closely, not bothering to curb his concentration out of politeness. No possibility of failed communication can he allow.   
  
Somewhat amusing it is to see how strong their habits remain; there is the slightest eye contact between the former Master and Padawan and he sees a consensus reached without words.    
  
“It’s as close to it as any of us are likely to be able to explain,” Qui-Gon affirms.   
  
“Then see you I will, when I have determined a path.”    
  
They all three bow to each other with ingrained Jedi courtesy, and the two ghosts blink out of existence as though they were nothing but illusions of the mist.   
  
Mulling over the conversation, Yoda returns home. Navigating through the swamp after nightfall is a treacherous ordeal, but he manages with ease. Trained he has, through years of practice and the instruction that Dagobah provides simply by being itself.    
  
He pauses outside and reflects on his home for a moment. Though the windows are dark and the hut nearly disappears into the landscape, he can sense all that he wants to know through the Force. Empty it is, right now. Falling apart and abandoned by all other creatures who shared it.    
  
Remain that way it need not. Yoda can foresee the future where he stays here. The uncertainty left behind, he will go back to living in the simplicity of Dagobah. And Dagobah will accept him. The small creatures will return and make themselves at home, as though they had never been gone. The days will flow past until Luke Skywalker arrives to learn the ways of the Jedi. His one apprentice he will teach as best he can, and when he must depart he will go to sleep in peace. Not a bad journey this is, and he sees less of selfishness than of common sense in it.   
  
However. If he were to choose otherwise – hmm. From a home without inhabitants it is much easier to walk away. The rhythms of daily life have their own pull, one as powerful and subtle as the tides that feed the swamps. Disrupted that routine has been, and now is the opportunity. Some thought the possibility deserves.   
  
He paces in front of the hut, “thinking with his feet again” as his old Master would have called it.    
  
Through the mists, only the slightest hint of moonlight gleams off the water of deep pools and slow-running streams. From far off, he can hear the reverberating yowls of the spotlight sloths singing in chorus. Marsh boomers, insects, night birds, the splash of something very large breaching in the nearby pond. Sanctuary this has been for a very long time. He takes a moment to appreciate the smell of moss and decaying plant matter.    
  
Two phantoms appear in the fog and he turns to them with an answer written in his wrinkled features. Understanding him without words this time, they smile in reply and fade.

 

**Notes** :

Marsh boomers – name inspired by the “mountain boomer”, a name used in the western United States for the common collared lizard ( [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_collared_lizard ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_collared_lizard) ). These lizards have some folklore associated with them, including the (false) beliefs that they are venomous and that they can make strange, loud noises (link: a nature blog article that mentions some of these stories  [ http://texasnature.blogspot.com/2005/08/cross-timbers-wildlife-news-mountain.html ](http://texasnature.blogspot.com/2005/08/cross-timbers-wildlife-news-mountain.html) ). 


	10. Epilogue 1: Sunrise

_Dantooine, 4 ABY_  
  
For many hours, traveling they have been. Pale shades of the approaching dawn glow on the horizon. After a night of climbing on loose shale, finally the small group of Jedi can see over the ridge.  
  
“Are we there yet?” The student’s question almost rises to a whine before ending in a yawn.  
  
Kajin Savaros reaches out to prop up his eleven-year-old Padawan before he falls down.  
  
“Wake up. There’s no snoozing in recon, Kyp!” A blond Human, once trained as a Gray Paladin and now working with his wife Ahsoka’s allies, grins at his newest apprentice. The boy looks blearily up at the recently minted Jedi Knight and attempts a mutinous expression. Somewhat hampered it is by the smile that lifts the corner of his mouth in spite of all efforts.  
  
Yoda watches Savaros coach the child through the basics of using the Force to regain one’s energy. The determined frown on Durron’s face reminds him still of another learner, one who was also scarred by slavery at far too young an age. Of all the perils in the rebuilding of the Jedi Order, Yoda recalls that the introduction of Kyp Durron was one of the most perturbing to him. So much power, so prematurely, in one who had learned that the galaxy rewarded the merciless. Reminiscent of Vader’s he had found the youngling’s background, and frightening.  
  
However, Kyp Durron is not Anakin Skywalker. No more so than the brother and sister who are caught up in an animated conversation with Barratk’l, Runab Ehata, and Lorcan Vos. Something the topic has to do with light freighter hyperdrives. Ehata and Leia both are staunchly supporting the quality of the units installed in the CR series. Yoda remembers that this is the type of corvette favored by many in the Alliance. More Yoda has learned of ships and their trappings than he ever expected or really wished. Part and parcel of training two Skywalkers, he supposes.  
  
When centuries younger he was, the approach of an apprentice’s trials used to bring a sense of emptiness amid the celebration he felt for their achievements. Long ago that was, and most of those students have passed into the Light since. For Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker, he feels hope for the future they may yet live to see.  
  
The test today will be the Knighthood trials for them, as well as for a few other apprentices deemed ready. Barratk’l, the Yuzzem female raised by Ahsoka Tano and Kajin Savaros; Korto, the eldest Vos sibling; and Ehata and Cilghal, members of the Rebel Alliance who were identified as Force-sensitive by Leia and trained by the Jedi Master T’ra Saa, all will face the tests of skill and mindset prepared by their teachers.  
  
The major goals of the exercise are to inflitrate the ruins of the Rebel base down in the riverbed, slice into the security system and get a specific hidden message, rescue a group of droids programmed to simulate prisoners, and hijack a ship guarded by reprogrammed droidekas, all with minimum losses.  
  
Also, they must avoid being “killed” by the skulking individuals with lightsabers or stun weapons who will leap out at them from dark corners, and even try to capture them in the wilderness outside before they reach the doors.  
  
When last Yoda saw the inside of the facility, Khaleen Hentz-Vos was assembling some sort of complicated sniper rifle altered for stun while her husband looked on in mild horror – until, that is, his wife began listing the many misdeeds of the Vos adolescents that their father had blissfully forgotten. Scout had no such misgivings and was humming cheerfully as Magash Drashi helped her string tripwires from the ceiling. The red-haired Jedi knew well her younger sister’s tendency to enter from the roof. Solo, Chewbacca, and Leia’s assistant Winter had all disappeared to their hiding places in a businesslike fashion. Well-acquainted it seemed all of them were with such practice exercises, even if they had not participated in a long time. Ahsoka had headed off into the brush with paired shockstaffs strapped to her back, while Master Saa had undoubtedly found some place to imitate the flora of Dantooine.  
  
For the younger and less experienced students, the point of today’s mission is not to make it all the way to the end but to practice their skills and hopefully learn a bit of teamwork. This is why Savaros has accompanied them to act as an instructor, primarily for Kyp but also for Lakri Myara and the younger Vos siblings.  
  
One other student there is. Caught uncomfortably between the stages of intermediate training and the preparation for Knighthood. Still almost belligerently herself, yet much improved Yoda must admit.  
  
“We’re losing the cover of night.” She makes an inarticulate growl of annoyance in his general direction, which requires twisting her own head at an angle that looks awkward for a Human. “You’re doing that thing where you make yourself heavier, aren’t you? I could have been over the mountain and inside the base by now!”  
  
“Whine no more. Need the practice in altering your perception of matter you did, and need a carrier I did. Leaving behind the group is not part of this exercise.”  
  
The sun-freckled Human looks skyward in the way that young adults of the species do when being difficult.  
  
“Luke,” she calls over to the blond apprentice, who makes his way over to them with a steady stride that almost masks his eagerness to be anywhere near Mara Jade. “Tell your Auntie Ahsoka that I’m never going on a trip with her again. Especially if she’s going to leave me with a bizarre Jedi recluse while she runs off to investigate mystery reports in outer nowhere.”  
  
“Bizarre am I!” Yoda laughs long and loud, and the two Humans look at him wide-eyed. Luke snaps out of it first. Used to such outbursts he is. Padawan Jade exhales slowly, massaging the bridge between her nose and forehead as though she has pain there. New calming techniques she has learned already in these last few days. They should bring Jade to Dantooine more often.  
  
“See,” she gestures to Luke, “this is what it’s been like ever since Ahsoka went and stranded us here. You know, I distinctly remember the oath I took when I joined the Alliance. At no time did I say the words ‘I submit to the tyranny of stew-swilling gremlins.’”  
  
An undignified tussle ensues when Yoda pokes her in the shoulder and Jade attempts to disarm him.  
  
“Whoa, wait.” Luke dives in and then thinks better when Jade’s – thankfully nonlethal – throw flings him to the ground and the Jedi Master’s gimer stick catches him across the thigh. “Ow! Hey!” he shouts as he climbs to his feet and assumes a more stable posture – Commander Skywalker of Rogue Squadron. The telekinetic shield that he forms between Yoda and Jade is not strong enough to really stop either of them, but it startles them enough. The young man’s expression turns from alarm to annoyance as he surveys the combatants. “I don’t even know which one of you to be embarrassed for here.”  
  
“Both,” says Leia, who has followed her brother. She has a tendency to show up for arguments in the making. The combination of Leia’s parents Yoda can see, in that the Alderaanian-raised Padawan has been known to defuse these arguments with great finesse – or jump in with enthusiasm.  
  
“Master Yoda.” She greets him formally, turns and does the same towards Padawan Jade.  
  
“Start it she did.”  
  
“Did not!”  
  
“I know you both too well,” says the Princess. “This is what we call a recreational argument.” She smiles in amusement, a look that Yoda sees more often than he used to. It’s an oddly lopsided expression for that politician’s face and sometimes it strikes him as familiar. Neither of her parents had it. So who was it? He cannot recall.  
  
Luke sighs. “She’s right. How is she always right? Master Yoda is his usual self, and Mara – “  
  
“Spent the last five hours hauling a boulder shaped like a gremlin uphill. This is plain, boring as dust endurance training. I wouldn’t object to that kind of exercise under normal circumstances. Normal does not involve the Master of Crabbiness. I may not be taking my trials, but I have got a test coming up and won’t be at my best because of this elementary poodoo. We could have done this any time.” Perched on Jade’s shoulders, Yoda can feel her wince when she hears the frustration rising in her own voice.  
  
“Reason there is why these are not your trials, Padawan Jade. And understanding me you are not,” he says when her Force aura sparks in distress. “All of life is training. This habit of dividing exercise from test is limiting. Your full energy and will you only give to those things marked as practice, while at test points you withold too much of your strength and ration it to get through. Fear of failing was ingrained deeply in your Imperial service. But live as though still the Emperor’s Hand and be a Jedi you cannot.”  
  
“Learning the ways of the Force means failing spectacularly sometimes,” Luke adds. “Just ask Master Yoda and my sister. Gah. Actually, scratch that. Never said it!”  
  
“Heh. Remember well I do.”  
  
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” the young pilot returns.  
  
“Come over for dinner some time when we’re in the same place for a day,” says Leia. “Trust me, I have all the good stories. Even holographic evidence.” She shrugs, then laughs a bit. “I didn’t take to it easily in the beginning, either.”  
  
“Seaweed,” Luke intones significantly.  
  
“Don’t.”  
  
“Just saying.”  
  
Leia shakes her head. She looks at Jade perceptively, enough that Yoda notices a brief defensive shift in the red-haired Human’s stance.  
  
“Mara, you’re nothing close to lazy but you’re used to things coming to you more intuitively.”  
  
A pause ensues. Yoda ponders whether it was a good idea to take his students so close to a sheer cliff face.  
  
“Somewhat,” Jade admits cautiously.  
  
“Trust me, Luke and I have both been there and done that. Force-use beyond what you had with the Empire really is that hard to learn. So is the philosophy that makes it work.” Leia smiles at Jade and receives a tentative grin in reply. Yoda can only theorize that their recent search for the second set of Death Star plans formed a friendship between the two women. “It takes time and yes, patience. There are plateaus where you think you’ve reached your limit. That’s not a problem, it’s the usual thing. When the time is right, you’ll break through.”  
  
“I hope you’re right about that.” Expression somewhat more vulnerable than ordinary, and yet a little hopeful. Yoda takes note. Unsure he is about the implications of the feelings between Luke and Jade, but Leia seems to be a good influence. “Your Master Yoda is still a gremlin, though.” Well, all things have their limits.  
  
“Fortunately for you, remain here I will while you go to the base.” He hops down to the ground.  
  
The copper-haired Human peers at Yoda. “Why? You just said that running ahead wasn’t in the plans.”  
  
“Ha! Running ahead of the other students is not indicated, Padawan Jade. I, however, stay here. More clearly will I see.” Yoda smiles and settles into a meditative pose, closing his eyes. “Keep in mind what I have told you and do well you will. All is training. Go on.” He nods and waves the apprentices away.  
  
“But – Master Yoda – “ Luke protests, his words trailing off as he recognizes in the painfully sudden way the young Skywalkers have of knowing these things, that his mentor’s days are numbered.  
  
“One must first be a fledgeling in order to fly,” he reminds his charges, the first lesson with Luke and Leia brought into what will probably be one of their last with him.  
  
Already moving into a meditative state, Yoda can see their stricken grief vividly, as well as the fierce, diamond-bright bond that both draw on to cope. Instinctively they find support in the other, a reflex likely formed before birth. Worried queries from their fellow apprentices and Knight Savaros begin to bubble up as their emotions alert the rest of the group.  
  
Interestingly, he can see Jade’s aura flare up and reach to theirs. She forms an unsettled but powerful third node in the silent exchange. He can see the linkage to Leia, relatively weaker than the siblings’ bond but strong for its seedling-like newness. And to Luke – a lightshow that reminds Yoda of nothing so much as the New Year Fete Week on Coruscant, all sparks and movement and fire.  
  
His eyes blinking open in surprise, he catches a glimpse of the three Padawans, both twins leaning on each other and Jade reaching out to clasp Luke’s hand in an uncertain attempt to console. Yoda returns to contemplation, surprised and a little more informed of how things might come to be.

 

**Notes** :

The cast list here may be a little confusing, since it didn’t seem right to have Yoda give an overly detailed summary of everyone new. Here is further information on everybody that doesn’t appear in the movies.  
  
Kajin Savaros (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kajin_Savaros>) is a character from the Coruscant Nights series in EU/Legends. His profile contains spoilers for that series, particularly for _Patterns of Force_ (Book 3.)  
  
(BOOK SPOILERS below for the Coruscant Nights series)  
My unwritten background for Kaj and Ahsoka (a completely non-canon pairing) is that they met some time after Savaros went to Shili to recover under the care of the healers there. Then, through Savaros’s contacts with the fugitive Jedi Jax Pavan (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jax_Pavan> \- spoilers for whole Coruscant Nights series), they somehow ended up falling in with the Gray Paladins (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Paladin>) – not Jax’s own affiliation, but a group with which he was familiar and possibly had continuing connections.  
   
He and Ahsoka had been together for many years when they agreed to join this new Jedi Order as a married couple. (Needless to say, that was probably an interesting negotiation and someday I may write it.)  
  
Recommendation: if you enjoy the Coruscant Nights books, there is a very good diary written by Ewok_Slayer that is currently running (contains spoilers for the series/characters through _The Last Jedi_.) (<http://boards.theforce.net/threads/the-journal-of-jax-pavan-ddc-2014-updated-10-5-2014.50017385/>)  
  
Kyp Durron (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kyp_Durron>) is a major character from the EU/Legends. In this version, he was rescued from Kessel by some of the new Jedi, possibly because Amidala warned them of his having a role in the future.  
  
"No snoozing in recon" is a variation on "no crying in baseball" from the movie _A League of Their Own_. (This is one which I cannot remember hearing of except through the quote. Now I'm curious. I would link it here, but the quotes are a bit above-PG.)  
  
Barratk’l ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Barratk'l](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Barratk%27l) – spoilers for Fate of the Jedi series) is introduced as a Jedi Master in the later EU/Legends. It is likely that she was trained much later than this at Luke’s academy in canon, but there are no specifics. She belongs to the Yuzzem (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuzzem>) species. Here, she’s intended to be the oldest of Ahsoka and Kajin’s adopted children – a family that now includes Kyp (the youngest and most recent), Lakri, and a couple of other middle siblings who died during their long years of running from the Empire.  
  
Runab Ehata is an OC. (Like the other OC’s mentioned here, he has not appeared in any of my previous stories.) He is an Ishi Tib (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ishi_Tib>) who was a member of the Rebellion. He and Cilghal agreed to Jedi training and were apprenticed to T’ra Saa.  
  
In the comics, Quinlan Vos (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quinlan_Vos> \- spoilers for the comics) and Khaleen Hentz (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Khaleen_Hentz> \- also spoilers) had one child right around the beginning of the Empire, Korto Vos (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Korto_Vos>). Here they also have two younger OC children, Lorcan and Nima. Lorcan is in his mid-teens and Nima is twelve years old.  
  
Cilghal (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cilghal>) becomes a Jedi healer in the post-ROTJ books. This version sets the timeline for that several years earlier. She’s a Mon Calamari (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mon_Calamari>) diplomat and happens to be a relative of Admiral Ackbar.  
  
T’ra Saa ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/T'ra_Saa](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/T%27ra_Saa) – spoilers for the _Republic_ and _Legacy_ comics) is a Jedi Master who survived Order 66. She belongs to the Neti (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Neti>) species.  
  
The CR series corvettes include the CR90 (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/CR90_corvette>), which was the model of the _Tantive IV_.  
  
The droidekas (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Droideka>) are refurbished leftovers from the Clone Wars.  
  
Magash Drashi (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Magash_Drashi> \- spoilers for _The Last Jedi_ ) comes from the Singing Mountain Clan (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Singing_Mountain_Clan> \- spoilers for _The Courtship of Princess Leia_ and other books) on Dathomir (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dathomir>.) She left to travel with Jax Pavan, and somehow that led her to be among the new generation of trained Knights.  
  
Shockstaff (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shockstaff>) – more or less what it sounds like. The only appearance was in the KOTOR comics, but some form of the weapon may have survived the centuries.  
  
Lakri Myara is another OC, a Force-sensitive female Togruta in her early teens. Kajin and Ahsoka adopted her on a visit to Shili. She was an infant at the time and had been abandoned at a sanctuary belonging to the Silent (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Silent>).  
  
Winter (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_Celchu> \- spoilers for all kinds of things) is another re-occuring EU/Legends character.  
  
New Year Fete Week (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/New_Year_Fete_Week>) was a traditional galaxy-wide holiday.  
  
Regarding Han’s presence, I’ve assumed that he did not end up in carbonite even though we’re approaching Return of the Jedi. It’s one of the butterfly effect results of changing the course of history. Perhaps the confrontation on Bespin will happen later, happened differently, or won’t occur at all.  
  
Dantooine (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dantooine>) was chosen as a location for the trials because it already has a past as a Jedi stronghold and an abandoned Rebel base. The theory is that this past creates a bit of “noise” like there is on Dagobah and it slightly obscures Force activity in the area.


	11. Friend

_Dantooine, 4 ABY_   
  
Later, when his triumphant apprentices are on their way back up the hill with their equally elated friends and various Jedi instructors in tow, Yoda leaves his trance. As though on cue, Amidala materializes from thin air.    
  
“Bright noon to you, Amidala.” She beams in response to the old-fashioned Naboo greeting.    
  
“Not ‘go take a hike, crazy ghost politician?’”    
  
“No. Even if the connections to the afterlife worked that way, take such adverse actions I knew you would not. Too much integrity to go through with it.”   
  
She raises an eyebrow. “Well, perhaps not the most catastrophic measures. But I certainly would have meddled for the best effects that I could manage.” The Senator looks across the violet and green plains of Dantooine and back to the straggling group of Jedi and other malcontents. “This, though – this was better, for many reasons. You’ve sensed the change.”   
  
“This I have noticed, though whether it can be so simply traced is doubtful. A natural cycle of the Force it might well be. Whatever the cause, the light is ascendant and the Sith on the wane. Precariously though, and much is still wavering.”   
  
“Regrets?”   
  
“None, simply more challenging is the work.” He smiles, feeling peace where once there was a grain of doubt.    
  
Not so different has his role in the rebirth of the Jedi been than planned, actually. He spent most of a year training Leia and Luke, trusting the rest of the apprentices to Vos and Saa. Also much aid from their non-Jedi associates. Scout’s Mandalorian adoptive kin he was at first very hesitant about, given their people’s history with the Order, but they seem to have worked wonders with Jade. The destructiveness to surroundings has overall been less than anticipated. Hmm. Jade.   
  
He looks to Amidala thoughtfully.   
  
“Making a match you were. All of that insistence about Scout’s sister.”   
  
She doesn’t bother denying it, showing no sign  of embarrassment . “Those young people will have enough to deal with; they don’t need to be alone as long as they would have, left to their own separate paths.”   
  
“Hmph. And what of the Princess?”   
  
Amidala just smiles in a secretive fashion, and he groans and puts his face to his palm as the pieces of information crystallize into one.   
  
“Not the smuggler!”   
  
“My wonderful daughter would steamroll right over anyone else. And Solo may not like for anyone to know, but he’d follow her through all nine Corellian hells and uncharted space. I like him.” She chuckles at Yoda’s incredulous expression.   
  
“Stranger than visions my reality is.”   
  
“Strangeness will keep you on your toes,” she says.    
  
“Not for long.” He knows intuitively that this is Amidala’s last haunting, and that her being here now means he has very little time left. Days or weeks.   
  
“Seeing an old friend lifts the soul,” she says. “You will always be welcome to my home, Master Yoda, in whatever world it may be found.” He bows in response, touched by the words of someone who he finds he does consider an old friend, in spite of everything. The Jedi formality only reflects and amplifies the goodwill that he knows the Force spirit can sense.    
  
“Take you up on that offer I may. Stories I have to tell you, of seaweed and malfunctioning astromech droids.” Looking down at the figures of Luke and Leia he adds, “But for now, I think that you might want to – what is it that you said? Take a hike!”   
  
“I think that would be an excellent idea.” She smiles and vanishes, rematerializing near her children.   
  
Know he does not what Amidala will have to say to the young Jedi Knights who are staring at her in confusion, but Yoda believes that the meeting will ultimately be a positive one. He settles back into meditation, basking in the sun and the wind and the smell of abramelia blooms.   
  
  
_End_

 

 

**Notes** :

The Mandalorians that Yoda mentions as Scout's adoptive family are Mij Gilamar (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mij_Gilamar> – spoilers for the Republic Commando novels) and Ovolot Qail Uthan (<http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ovolot_Qail_Uthan> – same spoilers), both Mandalorians that Scout befriended after Order 66.    
  
The abramelia plant is meant to be a bit similar to this wildflower: (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abronia_ameliae>)


End file.
